


I'm Grateful for You

by Kira_Dattei



Series: Developing Relationship Kinktober 2018 [6]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: AO3 FB Challenge, Canon Compliant, Gap Filler, M/M, pre-finals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-07-26 00:28:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16208870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kira_Dattei/pseuds/Kira_Dattei
Summary: Yuuri didn't think about needing an exhibition piece until Viktor brought it up. How's he suppose to know what to do?





	I'm Grateful for You

**Author's Note:**

> Day 6 of my Developing Relationship Kinktober brings us back to Viktor and Yuuri, who I'm gladly getting more used to writing.

“Have you thought about your exhibition piece?”

One question as they had left Ice Castle one evening and Yuuri felt like he was back to the days choosing his free program music. Except there was one very important difference: he'd never actually done an exhibition performance before. And while he knew Viktor had probably only put passing thought into it, used to choreographing his own programs as he was, Yuuri still struggled with that sort of expression, even on the ice.

He already had one program that was an expression of himself and completely personalized with his Free Skate. He didn’t need a second one in his season.

Viktor hadn’t even believed him when he responded that he'd forgotten about the exhibition.

While Yuuri had a hard time believing it himself, he’d gotten so focused on even getting to the finals that everything after the finals fell from view. And exhibitions were after the Finals; one day after but still after.

Phichit had laughed at him for his absent-mindedness and told Celestino before offering any advice.

Yuuri admitted that at least the advice was good: put a song on repeat, just skate to it for a while to see if he finds a story, move onto the next song until he got to one where the story came to him easily and he felt an emotional connection with, then build a program off of that. And with the freedom of the exhibition, it tended to be a lot easier to choreograph than any competition program.

Times like this was when Yuuri appreciated Phichit the most: his Thai friend understood certain things about how he thought and trained that his coaches didn’t necessarily pick up on. Or at least they didn’t verbalize instructions in a way that connected with Yuuri. He didn’t fault them for it since he knew it would be an issue between all coaches and their skaters but he had to acknowledge when that was the case so he could find a way to get the message.

So, that’s what he was doing between working with Viktor on his program, getting that ready for the Finals. While Viktor took time to get his own practice in on one half of the rink, Yuuri put in his headphones and let music be his whole world.

It was actually pretty therapeutic to just skate to the feel of the music, not having to worry about what would affect his score or what jump or technical aspect he needed to improve. It was just him skating to music he enjoyed, letting his imagination take hold.

After all, whether or not he’d officially choreographed anything – his Yuri on Ice piece was greatly Viktor’s interpretation of Yuuri’s explained emotions – he was still a dancer and that meant doing what he felt for the music where any piece could be expounded on to tell the story. And he’d always enjoyed dancing, nearly as much as he loved skating.

He actually wasn’t feeling much pressure about it as he had when Viktor brought it up about a week ago, even as that meant he was a week closer to potentially needing it.

He was ready to declare the current track a skip after only a few repeats and so he pulled his phone out of his pocket and opened up the list of tracks. He scrolled to where he’d left off and saw the title of the next song: _Stay Close to Me_.

This was the song, the number that was responsible for things being as they were now. It was the reason Viktor had come to Hasetsu, that had made him aware of Yuuri. So, as grateful as Yuuri would always be to Viktor, he was actually aware that this performance piece, this song, was something that was due some attention.

His exhibition was supposed to be a personal expression and right now Viktor was so interwoven into his life that it would be only too easy.

He started the song, going along with the choreography while not worrying about doing the full jumps, keeping them to doubles or triples to keep the rhythm, making some adjustments as he went for the parts he had forgotten in the months it had been since he’d last done this. And when he finished, he felt good about it.

That was important.

But how would he make it his own without changing the choreography completely? Doing that would defeat the purpose of using it considering he wanted to convey how grateful he was for the change it had brought to his life.

Yuuri looked across the rink to watch Viktor skating some basic step sequences. After a few minutes, Viktor seemed to notice Yuuri wasn’t skating anymore and looked his way, a question in his expression. Yuuri waved away any concern with a smile and Viktor went back to his practice easily enough, but did continue to shoot Yuuri looks.

The song continued to play in Yuuri’s ears.

The idea hit Yuuri suddenly and he actually felt himself flush at the thought before shaking off the embarrassment to consider the actual possibility. He wasn’t even worried about Viktor refusing the notion. And he knew skaters sometimes had friends and fellow skaters join them for parts of their exhibitions. And while Yuuri had never officially trained in pairs skating - his body type wasn’t ideal to lift and he was too much on the small side to do much lifting – he had observed others train so he knew the basics. Even though there wasn’t much difference between his weight and Viktor’s, the Russian had done plenty of maneuvering Yuuri around and pulling on him excitedly that Yuuri wasn’t concerned in the least about Viktor being able to lift him.

This could work.

And they had plenty of time that Yuuri could get the costume worked out to match Viktor’s from last year. People would recognize it for what it was.

This really could work. It would be a perfect follow-up to his other programs and be as meaningful as his Free Skate.

So, Yuuri skated over to Viktor, who stopped once he saw Yuuri’s approach, then he watched as Yuuri stopped right in front of him. He pulled out one of his headphones and offered it to Viktor. The Russian nodded and he placed it in Viktor’s ear, letting his hand hover beside it as Viktor immediately recognized the song and gave Yuuri a questioning look.

“I want to use this as my exhibition piece. But I want the second half to be a paired skate with you. Will you do that with me?” Yuuri asked, feeling proud with how surprised Viktor looked at the request and happy that he’d gotten it out without sounding the least bit nervous.

Then Viktor pounced, throwing his arms around Yuuri’s shoulders and forgetting to speak English in his excitement, rambling in Russian and Yuuri letting him get some of it out of his system before reminding him that he wasn’t _that_ good at Russian yet.

He was pretty sure he’d understood the general answer, though, and he was happy.

**Author's Note:**

> I love these guys so much. The next day of kinktober in this fandom will be Day 10, so look forward to that.  
> Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed.


End file.
